


why the SM7 can’t go anywhere nice

by AmbientMagic



Category: The Posterchildren - Kitty Burroughs
Genre: Future Fic, Gen, Road Trips, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-26
Updated: 2016-01-26
Packaged: 2018-05-16 07:51:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 924
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5820265
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AmbientMagic/pseuds/AmbientMagic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The first thing out of June’s mouth when she meets Ellie is, “You have to let me design you a costume.”</p><p>The second thing is, “Oh yeah, Maks is bleeding.  Can you help with that?”</p>
            </blockquote>





	why the SM7 can’t go anywhere nice

**Author's Note:**

> This is the TPC Secret Santa Super Special Bonus fic for sweetpollyolliver, for the prompt “Costume designs.”
> 
> Your Secret Santa is taking a little longer than expected to finish up your present, so here’s something to tide you over in the meantime!
> 
> Then I took forever too. Sorry about that.

The first thing out of June’s mouth when she meets Ellie is, “You  _ have  _ to let me design you a costume.”

The second thing is, “Oh yeah, Maks is bleeding.  Can you help with that?”

This is why the Super Magnificent Seven (Maks’ idea, and Zip picked it up, and whoops it stuck, no matter how hard June tries to fight it) can’t go anywhere nice:

First, because Ernest is the only one who’s allowed to drive his dad’s truck, and he has the navigational sense of a slightly concussed starfish;

Second, because this is a normal sized pickup truck, which means it has six seats.  There are seven people in the truck, several of which have personal space issues. June claimed shotgun (and was the one navigating), Maks sat in the front seat in between her and Ernest, and Mal, Zip, Jack, and Roz all squished together into the back.  How that worked, June wasn’t sure, but the last time she glanced back Zip was perched on Jack’s lap, and she couldn’t  _ confirm _ that Mal was sitting on Roz, but that was the truth June chose to believe.  Whatever.  _ She  _ wasn’t back there, so that was what mattered;  

Third, because this couldn’t be a easy, normal supply run for June’s capstone project.  Nope!  Somehow, she was roped into creating costumes for Ernest’s entire capstone team (and Jack, who went anywhere Roz went, so he better have a decent outfit if he was gonna be in June’s squad), and rather than just handing over their measurements and moving on with life, Mal had decided it would be a great team-building exercise for  _ everyone  _ to go, so they could have input into their costumes.  

June admired initiative.  She just didn’t like it when someone else’s initiative ran counter to her own expectations.

That said, June was  _ pumped  _ about her costume designs.  Each costume was individually tailored to fit the skillset of the poster it clothed,  _ while  _ maintaining individual artistic cohesion  _ and  _ fitting into the theme of the group as a whole.  No matching jumpsuits for June’s squad.  Hell no.  

Back to the current situation.  They hadn’t all even  _ gotten out of the car  _ before Maks was fifteen feet up a light pole in the parking lot, with Mal under him scoffing and saying he could have climbed it faster.  This, in itself, wasn’t unusual.  What  _ was  _ unusual, however, was the fact that Maks, sliding down the pole, hit a rusty nail or bolt or something else that lived on the side of light poles, and fell.  Luckily, he fell right into Ernest’s waiting arms, and, ridiculous slinky monster that he was, immediately wrapped his arms around his boyfriend, swooned, and cried “My hero!” 

Roz, still sitting in the backseat of the truck, sighed and put her seatbelt back on.  

Twenty minutes later, they were all sitting in a small cafe while a tiny (tiny,  _ tiny _ ) blonde girl rushed over to say hello.  The second June saw her she knew two things: one, this was the Ellie that Mal got moony-eyed about; two, she would be  _ so fun  _ to make clothes for, and desperately needed it.

Ellie, according to Mal, was training to be a nurse (hence the visit when Maks started bleeding), was a green-band poster (hence the  _ eye-searingly  _ neon green sweater she was currently wearing as a dress--if not for the color, June would say she looked cute as hell), and was the kindest person he knows (June took that detail with a grain of salt). Ellie was also tiny-tiny, even to a relatively short person like June: several inches under five feet, almost alarmingly thin, and she also had gorgeous golden feathers poking out of the collar of her sweater.

So June’s priorities were completely on the nose, thank you.  Maks wasn’t bleeding  _ that  _ badly, and Ellie would be fun (and difficult) to design for.  Especially since she seemed to have a thing for  _ neon.   _ She was June’s new mission.  On top of her thesis project.  June sighed.  

Over the next several minutes, Ellie patched up Maks’ leg, scolded him roundly for being such an idiot, brought them all several orders of fries to keep them occupied, and went back to her duties.  “I get off in half an hour,” she said to Mal, arms crossed.  “Stay.”  

And so they did.  Zip and Maks both watched Ellie make her rounds, a little starry-eyed.  June couldn’t blame them--Ellie was pretty and nice, and her friends had a history of fascination with forceful personalities.  Jack ate fries like they were going out of style, along with Ernest.  Mal and Roz were having a slapfight--no, Roz was moving Mal’s hands into different positions.  Sign language?  June filed that away for further investigation.  Satisfied that no one would be running away, starting a fight, or otherwise causing her a headache for at least ten minutes, June leaned into Ernest’s side and started doodling a formal gown--low in the back so her wings could be loose, with a high waist to make her legs seem longer….

June was lost in a haze of  _ A-line/ruching/chiffon/chartreuse/necklines??  _ when gently nudged by Ernest.  “Oh, it’s time to go?”

Ernest nodded cheerfully.  “Yep!  The fabric stores will still be open for a couple hours, so Ellie’s gonna come with us.  Then we can drop her off at home, okay?”

June thought about mentioning their lack of space in the car, then sighed.  “Okay, that’ll be fine.  I gotta teach this girl some color theory anyway.”

  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> I feel like there's more to this story, and I may add on another chapter at some point, but I wanted to go ahead and post it for now. Let me know what you think.


End file.
